Playing Hard

Video games have overtaken Hollywood as the biggest entertainment industry in the world. With thousands of jobs and millions of dollars at stake, developing a new game is risky. For Honor is the passion project of Jason Vandenberghe, a gentle giant whose adventure game full of Vikings, samurais and knights captures his philosophy about what it means to be virtuous. Bullied as a child, he escaped to games as a way to feel empowered. Now that his idea is finally being developed by Ubisoft, one of the world's biggest gaming studios, his dream is about to come true. But as Vandenberghe finds himself increasingly disheartened by the development process, losing creative control over the idea he spent his life shaping, we see the industry is as cutthroat as the games it produces. Like a sequel to Indie Game: The Movie, Playing Hard captures the true lives behind an increasingly virtual world. Alexander Rogalski